Alex loves music

Chestnut St.

We had a great time in the blizzard. It's not so bad when you stay home with the kids and have no where to be!

Dave shoveled a path, but I finished the rest after he walked to work.

Here are some pictures of the kids playing in the snow.

Alex dressed warm...in his sister's stuff

Lilia eating snow

Lilia, Leo & Alex jumping in the puddle

Invites

Here's Lilia's invitation to her 4th b-day party. They are all just a little different.

I had SO MUCH FUN making these. This is my thing. I love to create using cardstock. They were a lot of work, but I'm so pleased with how they turned out.

Lilia's invitation for her 4th b-day party

Quote of the day

"Mom, can you read in your head?" - Lilia

"Yes." - Katie

"But I can't hear you reading in your head." - Lilia

What do you do with a branch?

So I love nature. I really love nature.

When I first walked through our house I envisioned a total nature bedroom for Lilia with a branch hanging from the ceiling and all. Well what do you know, a year later a giant branch fell out front. As soon as I saw it I got so excited and yelled for Dave to grab the wood saw. It was so beautiful and so perfect for Lilia's room.

I love how dave totally humors me when it comes to stuff like this. He knew that this was going up in her room as soon as it was cut. He loves me so much!

Anyway, we cut some sizes and brought some up. The first one was WAY too big; much like the Christmas tree you cut down in the field and when you bring it home it's way bigger than you imagined. Once we found the right one we hung it. It looks so cool! The pictures don't do much, but you get the idea.

Somewhat finished product.

Sorry the branch turned out blurry. I couldn't get it clear.

We bought birds and a nest today at Michael's as an addition to the branch.

Craft of the day

We bought a bird house at Michael's today for $1. Lilia had such a great time painting it with glitter paint. I don't know why I only bought 1!

Lilia's obsession

Whether it's in the snow or in her room, Lilia is playing with animals. There's a good possibility she'll be a veterinarian when she grows up. The picture in her room was taken by Lilia herself. She sets up "the Farm" and gets so angry when Alex comes along and throws the fence pieces and takes the giraffes, which happens daily. As I am typing she's playing with her animals and narrating something that they are all doing. All I can detect is that there is a father and kids and all the animals are in a line.

We play animals every day, without fail. She takes her animals everywhere with her. It's interesting what kids gravitate to.

Alex update

How's Alex doing you ask?

Well he's doing great. Here's what he's up to lately:

• He's 15 months.
• Walking everywhere and quite quickly I might add.
• He can say a few words such as mama, dada, sis (lilia), eat, out.
• He is a very clear communicator. If you ask him a question, "Alex do you want to eat?" He nods his head yes and makes a grunting noise. It's so cute!
• He still has ezcema, but it's very localized to his upper shoulders. We do our best to keep it lotioned, but that doesn't always help.
• I believe he has 10 teeth already.
• He loves giraffes because Lilia does. Aw!

Paper leads to creativity

I think my favorite craft is card making. I love working with paper, particularly cardstock. Lilia's b-day is coming up in March and we decided on a "Safari" theme and as I'm sure you know her favorite animal is a giraffe.
Yesterday I worked on invitations for her party. I got an idea in my head and ran with it. They are so awesome. They are totally made out of paper using cardstock. There are endless colors, and things you can do. I love it! I'm really excited about them. I will post a picture soon, but I'm not at home to do that.

Quote of the Day

Aunt Karen painted Lilia's nails & toenails each a differnt color. They look pretty awesome. Lilia was showing my mom her nails. My mom in turn showed Lilia her green sparkle toe nails. Lilia was commenting on my mom's nails, which led to her feet when she said, "Your feet are kinda cracky." This was referring to my mom's dry skin on her feet. We certainly had a good laugh!

Adventure Kate

"And here we go, go, go, go on an adventure..." (The theme song to the PBS show The Cat in the Hat)

Last night around 10pm I asked Dave if I could go snowboarding today. He eventually said sure and that today could be his comp day for working this coming Sunday. I set my alarm for 6am and was pretty sure I would go, but not 100%.

Alex woke up at 5:10am for a bottle and I quickly got out of bed. I ran to the window after taking care of him, only to see that it had stopped snowing. That was my 2nd reason to heard for the slopes. You see, I was so pumped to snowboard in fresh powder, but I didn't want to drive in the storm.

So I was awake and the roads would be ok to drive; I went for it! I got myself ready and headed for Blue Mountain.

My snowboard was at my parent's house, but my dad met me at the Quakertown exit with no problems. (Today's his day off.) By the way - THANKS SO MUCH DAD!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and another major bonus...Wednesday's are Ladies day where you get $10 off your ticket!

I was on the slopes by 8:45am and boarded all morning. I just got a morning ticket so as to not be gone the full day. By the time I got to the car for lunch at 12:30 I was starving. I had brought a snack and a sandwich, but that didn't put a dent in the bucket.

Wow was it an awesome day! Dave - thank you SO MUCH for being such an incredibly selfless husband who loves me so well! I loved being by myself and just enjoying the snow, the fresh air and being on my board. I don't think I'll ever give up snowboarding until I get too old or too injured. It's just so soothing, so freeing, so enjoyable!

I am thankful we had the money growing up to get to enjoy that kind of thing in the winter. Now I get to reap the benefits!

There's me!

A new year maybe equals change

I don't think I've ever made a new year's resolution. Personally I think they are dumb. Show me someone who's stuck with one for an entire year and I'll buy them a beer or a soda (or whatever they want to drink.) I'm sure some one who does would be a ridiculously driven person who could easily change the world. Well that's certainly not me. I'm too much of a pessimist!

However last night and tonight I have made a point to relax and I think I like it.

Last night I sat on the couch with a bowl of vanilla ice cream drizzled with chocolate syrup (go ahead and pause while you run to the kitchen to get this) and read a magazine.

Tonight after I gave Lilia a bath and played animals with her for a bit I grabbed my stuff and headed to Starbucks. Ahh, Starbucks...there's no other place like you! (I do support local coffee shops, but there is something about the atmosphere at Starbucks that's perfect for spending time with God.) Anyway, I was there for over an hour and I was so relaxed! I read a book, a little of the Bible. At one point I just sat there and stared. It was glorious!

So my point is simply this: I want to make a point to relax more often. That could look like yoga, going for walk by myself (but not at night), reading magazines and going out by myself or with a good friend for tea. I just hope my pessimism doesn't get the best of me and I start making excuses why I can't do these things more often.

If you're reading this and you want to be that good friend, just email or facebook message me. I'll help you relax too!

Sudden change

My brother is married! I have a sister-in-law! Wow, crazy.

Matt & AnnMarie got married in November, but they had a small ceremony for family and a reception for friends and family on Sunday night. My in-laws very selflessly watched the kids so Dave and I could go. We had a great time and really enjoyed the night.

We're excited about AnnMarie joining our family. She's great - we love her!

The happy couple

The other happy couple

My parents

My poor mom was so sick, but she made it anyway! Dang flu.

Cutest sweater on the cutest boy

My brother got Alex this sweater for Christmas. I had to put up a post so that he could see it.

Thanks Matt, I love it! I hope you have a boy so he can wear it one day!

Snow, snow, snow

Here's my hot husband the day before he took off driving 14 hours to Nashville for Bridges Christmas conference. It's where hundreds of international students gather at a hotel to hear speakers, experience time with other Christians and have fun touring the city. Next year it's in DC, which is nice for us.

Creative pancakes

Our last morning at my in-laws was Tuesday, then we headed to my parent's house for the rest of the week.

Lilia loves pancakes so my father in-law got to work bright and early to prepare a nice breakfast for us. Lilia loved her name in pancakes.

Mr. Snowman

Lilia couldn't wait to play in the snow. She went out 3 times in one day. Most of the time she went out with her pj's under her snow pants, no coat, but a hat. Often we just threw her boots on without socks. The funniest was her going out with a shirt, a coat, underwear, snow pants and snow boots. No pants, no tights, no socks. She's nuts!

We had fun building this snowman together. The snow was perfect for rolling up into a huge ball.

Sunset

I went for a walk with Alex around the neighborhood at sunset. I went back for the camera and I was so glad I did! It was exquisite!

Lost River Caverns

Shu shu (Uncle) Matt & the kids

Matt came over one night. Both kids hopped up on his lap. It was so sweet, I couldn't help but snap a picture.